The British heir to the throne Prince Charles and his son and next-in-line, Prince William, were unwilling to meet President Donald Trump on his visit to Britain, The Sunday Times reported.
In discussions about the president's four-day visit to the U.K., the two senior royals said they did not wish to be involved, a source with knowledge of the discussions told the newspaper.
When Trump and First Lady Melania Trump met Queen Elizabeth II on Friday, the British monarch greeted them alone. The Queen's husband, Prince Philip, has recently retired from public duties.
"This business of Prince Charles and Prince William not being there for the Trump visit was a snub," the source said, as cited by the publication. "They simply refused to attend. It's a very, very unusual thing for the Queen to be there on her own. Usually she is accompanied by somebody. Prince Charles has been substituting for Philip a lot recently."
The Prime Minister's office in Downing Street said that Trump's trip was not a state visit but a working visit, so Trump had not been scheduled to meet any members of the royal family other than the Queen.
However Trump's trip, in which he was confined to a half hour tea with the Queen, contrasts with a working trip to the U.K. made by Barack Obama in 2016, when he had lunch with the Queen and Prince Philip and also a private dinner at Kensington Palace with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry.
A British government minister, speaking to the publication anonymously, admitted that there was concern about the Trump trip in the royal family but denied that a formal invitation was rejected. "They might have had a view that they were happy not to do it, but it is not true that it was on the cards and they refused to do it," he said.
Trump's past behavior may not have enamored the royal family to him, with the then real estate tycoon saying he regretted he never got to date Prince William's mother, Princess Diana, in a 1997 book released after her death, and criticizing Kate Middleton after she was photographed sunbathing topless in 2013.
In an interview with the Mail on Sunday, the president praised the Queen, describing her as beautiful "inside and out."
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